We have chronicled various acts of customer abuse, incompetency, and overcharging. This one take the cake though.
First let's review some rebate examples briefly:
Several years ago I bought an Acer USB 4x CDRW from Best Buy. Came with a $40 rebate. Only took me 18 months to get it, but I did. As a result of the experience I didn't set foot in a Best Buy for many months and have yet to buy another Acer product. The original CDRW still runs though and I still use it. Needless to say, we are meticulous in applying for rebates owed. Periodically if one gets to be late I visit Fry's and complain, letting them know that the owed rebate is delinquent and my policy on such matters is, no more shopping here until I get my check!
Fast forward to 2007... Earlier this year, our star of this show, T-mobile, issued a marvelous offer a prepaid Nokia 6030 phone. $30 plus tax, with free shipping, a $25 airtime card, a $30 mail-in rebate, and yet another $30 from a straight-up referral site called Deal King. It all happened too, as offered. Like a T-mobile rebate I did a couple of years ago, it happened within about 2 months. Punctual and exemplary handling of an MIR.
Those days are over though, and I see my story is not the only one. Rob at http://tmobilerebate.blogspot.com/ has one with a happier ending.
In June 2007, the same prepaid Nokia 6030 phone was offered at $30 plus tax, with free shipping, a $25 airtime card, a $30 mail-in rebate. No referrer but still a nice deal, right?
WRONG! That rebate form is only an illusion. Let us just say it is fraudulent. The victim can do everything timely including purchase in appropriate time window, not from one of the stipulated invalid sellers (Sam's, Target, etc), activate and use, send the form and the bar code, etc. We have not been subject to any outright abuse from Young America or from T-mobile. Only refusal, denial, and a pack of lies.
The claim was acknowledged as timely received, and every condition was met but it is still rejected.
We have heard a number of lies, including
1: t-mobile.com is not an authorized retail outlet
2: You got your rebate in the price of the phone
3: We sent you a rejection letter
4: You did not qualify for the rebate
5: You got it cheap enough so we don’t owe you
6: It is not valid in conjunction with any other promo
7: We never offered any such rebate.
Something like “free shipping” could easily be interpreted as a promo, so ALL T-mobile rebates can be rejected at their rebate processor's whim, with or without orders from T-mobile. How on earth they can say their own store is not authorized is unknown. And saying they did not offer such a rebate all the while the form is available from T-mobile, for the world, is preposterous.
At this point we have an unresolved BBB complaint, two letters from Executive Response (one a response to the BBB and one a response to message to the CEO), an Attorney General's Fraud division complaint entered, and an FTC complaint. The refusal to honor their own rebate appears to be coming from the highest offices of T-mobile USA, not from the rebate processor. Considering the number of similar issues out there, this one looks ripe for a Class Action barrister. After pursuing Acer for 18 months and prevailing, surely they don't think we are done do they? Not before porting out and pursuing every venue we can find to get some justice.
Meanwhile, if you see a mail-in rebate that says T-mobile on it, consider it to be worse than worthless. I think it is fair to ask, "Do any T-mobile rebate claims get fulfilled?"
